Ohi-D'oh! US prison hands inmates' SSNs over to... an identity thief

Convicted fraudster says he was given personal details in records requests

Prison authorities in Ohio, US, mistakenly provided the social security numbers of thousands of inmates to a man convicted of identity theft.

The Mansfield News Journal says it was directly contacted by Lonny Bristow, who said he was sent the social security numbers of more than 2,000 prisoners when he made a public records request for inmate rosters at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

Bristow, whose past convictions included identity theft, making bomb threats, and telephone harassment, was supplied with an unredacted copy of the roster, which included, in addition to SSNs, each inmate's name, date of birth, Bureau of Criminal ID number, release date, and housing assignment.

The former inmate, who served time in state and federal prisons, told the paper he immediately sought to go to the press with the information for fear he would face criminal charges for possessing the numbers.

"I knew I had to turn it into the media," Bristow was quoted as saying. "I actually am truly done with the criminal life. Life's too short. I could've used those Social Security numbers to open a credit card account but I didn't."

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections did not return a Reg request for comment on the matter, but the News Journal reports the department is investigating and is looking to provide identity monitoring services for the inmates.

Ohio is not alone in making embarrassing errors of this sort. In 2013, a clerical foul-up at the UK's Ministry of Justice was blamed when the personal details of the inmate population of a Welsh prison were inadvertently sent out in a mailer to three families. ®